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Reser Bicycle Outfitters was looking for another angle to promote their bike shop. I came up with the idea to try to ride the wave of discontent and frustration concerning today’s rising gas prices. So this spot was born and began airing during the Tour de France.

The commercial was put together using the new Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5. It is an adjustment getting used to FCPX, but it appears manageable. There are many things about the program that are vastly superior to FCP7. Although I could not import previous projects from FCP Studio, it was not hard to import media such as sound track, sound effects, logos, etc.

One big concern: How well would FCPX manage the Technicolor CineStyle profile? Recently I almost gave up on the CineStyle as too much trouble. However, my spot Join the Fun on a Road Bike had some shots directly into the sun and the extra latitude afforded by the CineStyle really helped those shots. I haven’t figured out if FCPX has support for CLUTs, but even without it, FCPX’s color board worked well with CineStyle. In my opinion the FCPX color board is actually an improvement over the 3 way color corrector, and it allows for secondary color correction much like Apple Color. Check out Dan Allen’s tutorial on FCPX color correction if you are interested.

During shooting of this new Save Gas spot the contrast of the exterior and interior of the moving car shot demanded all the latitude we could get. For sure I knew I needed the CineStyle profile. I figured I would need even more help so I used the amazingly affordable Yongnuo YN-160 battery powered LED panel to help light the interior of the car. It is a great addition to my collection of lighting equipment.

Motion 5’s interface is much improved in my estimation. I am just proficient in Motion but still was able to put together some motion graphics as well as execute the match move behavior on the signs. They both came out pretty well, but I was most proud of the gas station sign. I also used Motion to create a slight hand held effect on the Save Gas sign. I added a wriggle parameter to the X and Y axes to make the shot look hand held. I had shot it locked down on the tripod and just a little motion seemed to help add to the illusion I was trying to get with the match move behavior.

It was my weakness in Motion 4 that prompted me to move ahead with FCPX. I figured since I was in for a learning curve anyway I thought why not learn Motion 5 instead of Motion 4, and that meant FCPX. I was sure that would be a lot easier than learning Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro.

The way FCPX handles sound, transcoding media, the 64 bit architecture, background rendering, processor support, interface design, motion graphics, etc., all add up to some powerful incentives for film editors to take a look. For editors with large libraries of legacy projects which won’t import, FCPX probably wouldn’t work. However, this experience with FCPX for me has proven to be a satisfactory experience.